Capturing the Northern Lights on camera in real-time has been a pipe dream for generations of filmmakers for more than a century or so. Fortunately, the technology reached the tipping point where ultra-high ISO videography is already a reality and everything now seems to be possible and achievable.
Although many argued the qualities of the latest multi-purpose camera the ME20F-SH by Canon saying that these insane ultra-high ISO levels are unusable in real-life situations, the 3-minute video below is an unambiguous proof that this camera can produce some stunning imagery delivering quality unseen before. As the authors claim “you’ve probably never seen better films and footage, that can better show what the beauty of the northern lights are all about.”
Aurora Skycam is a german film company with an office in Norway, that specialises in streaming and filmed content of the aurora borealis. It’s the first company in the world picked by Canon to use the new ME20F-SH high-definition video camera to produce stunningly detailed low-light footage of one of the world’s most spectacular natural phenomena. The above promotional video was produced to showcase the qualities of the flagship Canon ME20F-SH at this years IBC trade show.
As for the facts, part of the team of Aurora Skycam spent less than 12 days to shoot the video and travelled the whopping 4.698 km chasing good weather and looking for the perfect locations. After that, they had only 6 days for the production of the movie itself as they need to cut down from more than 14,5 hours of raw footage. The recording was done via the camera’s SDI output to an external recorder. In most of the time, the filmmakers utilised the CN-E14mm Cinema EOS lens.
Aurora Skycam team were so impressed by the performance of the camera that they tend to use it in future projects as well. You can also join the company’s official YouTube Channel where a new promo materials captured on the Canon ME20F-SH will be published every month from now on.
Just as a reminder, the camera sports a super-sensitive 2.2MP full-HD 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor inside a small form factor body providing ultra high ISO levels up to 4,000,000 thus enabling videographers to record color images in near-complete darkness. The retail price of this high-end device is $30,000.
[via: Redshark News, source: Aurora Skycam]
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